I recently bought a Coolermaster Notepal U3 and decided to mod it with 12V fans like many others before me. I also modded my bottom tray and ran some tests. Thought I'd share for anyone interested in doing something like this for their M15X.

Section 1: Notepal U3 Mod

Fans are EK Vardar F4-120 2200RPM (Dual Ball Bearing/ 77cfm / 3.16 mm H20 / 33.5 dba /2.16W). As you can see three of them in a row line up perfectly with the holes in the cooler's base. They get quite loud at full speed but push a lot of air. I tried some 1000rpm fans before I got these and they were dead silent but hardly pushed any air. If you want the fans to make a real difference you're gonna have to accept some noise. Some fans are quieter than others but once you start pushing 1800+ rpm, they all tend to get quite loud. Look for fans with high static pressure ratings and either ball or fluid dynamic bearings. Try to avoid sleeve bearing fans for horizontal mounts like this.

Fan Controller is a Zalman Fanmate 2. It's a decent fan controller rated at 6W so I'm a bit over its rating. The fans make a low humming sound when connected to the controller so I'm probably going to replace it. Power adapter is a 110-240V AC to 12VDC 1A (12W) adapter with 5.5mm plug.

Here's a crude diagram for anyone interested:

Section 2: Bottom Tray Mod

Using my rotary tool, I cut out three sections from the tray. I then needed some metal mesh material to cover the openings. I had a cheap 10 dollar cooler that I sacrificed for this. I cut out the metal mesh and used epoxy to hold it in place. Thanks to King of Interns who's tray mod inspired me to do this .

REMARKS: Tests were done without fan controller. 12V test was done with direct current from adapter. 9V tests were done with voltage dropping resistors on each fan (22Ω 1W).

3DMARK06 SETTINGS:

Tests Used: ALL CPU/GPU Tests Selected

Test Loop: Each test was run in a continuous loop of 5 runs per test

Screen Resolution for testing: 1280x1024

Monitoring Software: HWinfo64

OCCT SETTINGS:

Test Used: GPU DX11 Burn Mode

Duration: 10 minutes per test

Remarks: All default settings

Monitoring Software: HWinfo64

3DMARK TEST 1: COOLER FANS OFF / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 74C

CORE 1: 70C

CORE 2: 74C

CORE 3: 78C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 73C

3DMARK TEST 2: COOLER FANS @ 12V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 69C

CORE 1: 66C

CORE 2: 69C

CORE 3: 74C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 67C

3DMARK TEST 3: COOLER FANS OFF / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 74C

CORE 1: 69C

CORE 2: 73C

CORE 3: 78C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 72C

3DMARK TEST 4: COOLER FANS @ 12V/ BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 64C

CORE 1: 61C

CORE 2: 66C

CORE 3: 70C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 63C

3DMARK TEST 5: COOLER FANS @ 9V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 72C

CORE 1: 69C

CORE 2: 70C

CORE 3: 75C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 69C

3DMARK TEST 6: COOLER FANS @ 9V / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

CPU MAX TEMPS:

CORE 0: 68C

CORE 1: 62C

CORE 2: 68C

CORE 3: 70C

GPU MAX TEMPS: 64C

OCCT TEST 1: COOLER FANS OFF/ MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

GPU MAX TEMP: 76C

OCCT TEST 2: COOLER FANS @ 12V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

GPU MAX TEMP: 65C

OCCT TEST 3: COOLER FANS OFF / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

GPU MAX TEMP: 75C

OCCT TEST 4: COOLER FANS @ 12V / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

GPU MAX TEMP: 60C

OCCT TEST 5: COOLER FANS @ 9V / MODDED TRAY INSTALLED

GPU MAX TEMP: 68C

OCCT TEST 6: COOLER FANS @ 9V / BOTTOM TRAY REMOVED

GPU MAX TEMP: 63C

Well, as you can see results are pretty good, especially with the bottom tray removed. The surface of the U3 is quite restrictive. I think if bigger holes are cut out, air will flow much more freely, but I am not willing to do this (yet) because it will ruin the look of the cooler. From my results, even at lower rpms, you can see that these fans still push out plenty of air to make a difference. At 9V these fans could still be heard, but the sound level is quite acceptable. I think for people that game with headphones like I do, noise won't be much of an issue.

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Awesome job on this @kosti. The cooler mod and the bottom cover mod are excellent.

I agree with @Papusan on using the filters. They do an excellent job of keeping dust and lint out of the laptop. I used to clean out the inside of my laptops about once a month, but since I started using my U3 mods with filters it takes around 90 days to collect the same amount of crud. I now have three U3 mods with 120mm fans on AC-powered controllers.

My wife does not wear panty hose much, so I use the snap-on type with the washable element. For the first two mods I used the Rosewill filters, but I cannot find them any more. For the third mod I used those in the link below. They look very similar, but they are a bit flimsy compared to the Rosewill filters. They still work OK, and they are very inexpensive.

Thanks Mr. Fox and Mr. Papusan. I was shocked with how much dust accumulated in such a short amount of time. I suspect most of it has to do with the modified bottom tray. I gotta get some filters now for the fans....either that or a wife that wears panty hose

Thanks Mr. Fox and Mr. Papusan. I was shocked with how much dust accumulated in such a short amount of time. I suspect most of it has to do with the modified bottom tray. I gotta get some filters now for the fans....either that or a wife that wears panty hose

at with that much oomph they will cool almost anything i throw at em at least thats my thinking. loud but i have headphones and a sub

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Deltas are great fans! That's why most OEMs use them for desktops and servers. I originally wanted to get a set of Delta AFB series fans but the shipping would have been too much where I live. Look at the AFB series.

Deltas are great fans! That's why most OEMs use them for desktops and servers. I originally wanted to get a set of Delta AFB series fans but the shipping would have been too much where I live. Look at the AFB series.